Sector movers: Drink and supermarket stocks fall

1st Apr 2014 14:15

Beverages and food retailing were among the worst performing sectors on Tuesday in London after gloomy comments from analysts weighed on Peroni maker SABMiller and supermarket giant Tesco.SABMiller was down 0.7% at 2,974p this afternoon, continuing to pull back after hitting a two-month high on Friday, after Credit Suisse said it expects fourth-quarter trading could be "challenging".Ahead of an update from SABMiller on April 15th, the bank said it expects a short-term deceleration in organic revenue growth to around 3% in the final three months of its financial year, compared with 4% growth over the first three quarters and the 7% growth registered over the last decade.This slowdown "could disappoint, particularly considering the stock's recent re-rating back to its circa 10% premium valuation versus its consumer staples peers", Credit Suisse said.The bank said that tougher drink-driving regulation in Colombia, an excise duty increase in Zambia and tough comparatives in China could all dampen growth.Beverage peer Diageo was down 1%.Meanwhile, Tesco was in the red after Espirito Santo retained a 'sell' rating, saying that operationally the group had "not addressed its core offer on quality or pricing architecture". These "ongoing concerns will be reflected at the full-year results on April 16th", it said.Tesco was trading down 0.8% at 293.05p. Rival grocers J Sainsbury and WM Morrison were registering steeper losses today, trading down 2.1% and 0.9%, respectively.Top performing sectors so far todayAutomobiles & Parts 9,399.02 +3.00%Technology Hardware & Equipment 1,239.32 +2.53%Life Insurance 6,937.30 +2.21%General Retailers 2,993.69 +1.65%Financial Services 8,120.68 +1.63%Bottom performing sectors so far todayForestry & Paper 11,137.58 -1.43%Beverages 13,615.87 -1.05%Food & Drug Retailers 3,888.81 -0.83%Food Producers & Processors 7,473.38 -0.54%Tobacco 37,405.85 -0.41%BC